For those of you who have followed Harada House’s history, have you ever wondered why we continue to fund raise for the House’s preservation? Have you wondered just what has been going on with Harada House after all these years? I asked that question the other day and now realize just how complicated is preserving Harada House and developing an interpretive center and why so much money has to be collected and on hand.

It is like a game of dominos. One action triggers several others. For example, if one were to replace the foundation, which is essential to preserve the house, so many things would shift that there is the danger (or probability) of unexpected things happening like all the plaster on the walls falling off, a not desirable reaction. On some walls there are scribblings of the past that are a significant part of the family history which would be destroyed. One wall has an inscription written in pencil documenting the day and time the Haradas of Riverside left for the incarceration camps in WWII. Too, the plaster has its own composition which has survived all these years and speaks to how things were done in the past.

If one were to start dismantling parts of the house for repair, that dismantling opens the house for other needed repairs like electrical, heating and air, preservation of the floor, wallpapers, windows and doors, etc. Once exposed, it would make sense to address these issues rather than fix one thing, and then have to come back and repeat the process to fix another. We don’t want to be like road crews where one crew comes along and stripes the road; then another crew comes along and fills pot holes; then another crew comes along and digs up the whole road to relevel it. The preservation of the House has to be logical and systematic. It needs to make sure the impact of changes has minimal effect on the character defining features of the House.